Easy Chicken Curry Traybake
If you are trying to improve your child’s relationship with food, it is important to consider not only their picky eating behaviours but the cause of it.
Why is the food being rejected?
If your picky eater has trouble accepting varying food textures, the next step is to develop a plan to help them handle texture issues.
Some experts can help you with this or you might want to give it a go yourself. Here are some tips!
Why not create a list of foods your picky eater commonly accepts? Try to include items in each food group: fruit, vegetable, dairy, protein, and wholegrain categories.
Create a list that’s commonly offered but rejected.
Analyse the two lists comparing foods and qualities related to texture.
Look at how you cook these foods, what are the trends commonly accepted or rejected, do foods have similar textures such as crunchy or chewy.
If this sounds too much, I can help you with this!
Navigating food sensory sensitivity can be tricky, but there are methods of expanding your picky eaters’ palate by helping them handle their texture issues.
Is plate presentation and food combinations an issue?
This can influence whether a meal is accepted. It can be helpful to separate mixed food textures and serve a meal as pieces rather than one complete dish. If it encourages them to eat protein, whole grains and vegetables? Most parents will try anything!
Your picky eater may be happy to eat differing textures if they are not combined in one bite. For example, a chicken curry contains a mixture of textures and sensations as the food is presented as one item.
To break them down might not be too much hassle.
This recipe could be the perfect solution.
My son struggles with mixed textures and I have not managed to get him to try a chicken curry. I have marinated chicken in mild tika spices. We are making slow progress and he has tried a small slice.
This recipe was perfect to get him to try a chicken curry. The chicken was lightly spiced, not too dry as it was cooked in stock and coconut milk.
It was easy to serve the chicken separately from the sauce and soft vegetables. He ate the chicken with brown rice and his preferred vegetables, raw carrot, raw peppers and cucumber. It is early days but he had a few tastes of the chicken and ate all the rice and veg.
A win for me when I only need to cook one meal!
Chicken Marinade
1½ tbsp curry powder of your choice
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp chilli powder (optional)
10-12 curry leaves, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
2cm piece ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
For the vegetables
2 red onions, roughly chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2.5cm rounds
6 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
2 handfuls of kale
5cm piece ginger, skin on and cut into 1cm slices
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp coconut oil
45g unsalted butter, melted
200ml chicken stock, or home made bone broth frozen
150ml coconut milk
Serve with: Brown rice, naan bread, live yoghurt
Method
Start by marinating the chicken. Combine all the ingredients for the marinade and rub all over, using a spoon to ease some under the skin. Leave to marinade in the fridge.
Heat the oven to 200°C fan/gas 7 and remove the chicken from the fridge. Put the onions, carrots, garlic, ginger and cinnamon stick in a large bowl, season, add melted coconut oil and toss well to combine, ensuring the vegetables are well coated in seasoning. Transfer to a roasting tray large enough to accommodate the chicken on top later in the cooking process. Roast for 15 minutes, tossing every 5 minutes.
Put the chicken on top of the vegetables and reduce the oven temperature to 180°C fan/gas 6. Roast for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, baste the chicken with the melted butter, then add the chicken stock to the roasting tray, pouring it down the side so it doesn’t wet the chicken skin. Give the tray a good shake and roast for a further 15 minutes. Baste once again, add the coconut milk down the side and shake well. Add the kale. Roast for a final 10-15 untill chicken is fully cooked.
Serve with brown rice, naan bread to soak up the juices
Picky eaters often avoid spices and herbs.
They can spot a fleck of herb a mile away in meatballs or sausages. And they can be sensitive to mild spices, often my son scratches his tongue if his favourite food contains a spice. I am continuing to help him desensitise when it comes to herbs and spices. Because they are so important for our gut health. We all know that a healthy gut is essential for digestion, absorption of nutrients, immune system and overall wellness.
Why are spices and herbs good for the gut?
Phytochemicals are plant chemicals that have protective properties and support gut health. Polyphenols is one example, found in a wide range of plant foods such as berries, coffee, tea, olives, onions, broccoli, flaxseeds, spices, herbs and rapeseed oil.
The richest source of polyphenols are spices and herbs. The highest levels are found in: curry powder, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, peppermint, star anise, oregano, celery seed, sage, spearmint, thyme and basil
It’s thought that around 90% of polyphenols pass from the stomach, through the small intestine and into the large intestine undigested. It’s in the large intestine where the polyphenols help increase the number of beneficial gut bacteria such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, which have many health benefits including anti-inflammatory properties.
How can my picky eating workshops or 1 to 1 programs help you?
I can help your child gradually overcome some of their sensory challenges, such as spices and mixed textures. I love creating recipes they like to eat and gradually broaden the list of safe foods. So they can start to enjoy a broader variety of food packed with essential nutrients that help them flourish in the future.